Alan Daly is a fourth generation farmer, who has been farming up to about 300 sheep and 50 cattle organically, over more than 400ac, in Co. Mayo.

In 2022, Daly purchased 100 pedigree sheep to add to his flock, and within a period of three weeks, 50 of them had went missing.

Daly explained: "We noticed our numbers were dropping a bit, you might count them today and in a week's time there would be some missing.

"I was frustrated, and I wanted to improve the security on the farm. I came in contact with my good friend Pat (Shannon), who was a colleague on the rescue service on Lough Mask."

Daly asked Shannon, who is a retired detective with An Garda Síochána, if he could help him uncover where the missing sheep had gone.

Shannon joined An Garda Síochána in 1986 and retired in 2018, working 27 years in various crime units investigating murder, robbery, and subversion. He spent the last nine years of his career working in intelligence.

Livestock theft

The retired garda detective explained that when he was approached by Daly about his issue with livestock theft, it was a crime he "never really thought about".

He said: "This brought us on to looking at devices that may be on the market, and this brought us to GPS devices.

"So what we started doing was, we risk assessed the farm from where we suspected the stock was going missing from, and then we fitted a number of sheep with GPS tracking devices.

"We downloaded the footage and the movement of that sheep which led us to find the other sheep that were missing."

Shannon explained that the software operates either via a free app that can be downloaded on to a phone or through a portal that can be accessed to via a link sent by email.

The collars can also be used on all types of livestock such as cattle, horses, donkeys, and goats, but are not designed for domestic animals.

Gate sensors

Shannon also developed gate sensors which he says are "ideal for lowland farming".

He explained: "Even if the gate is locked, it's simple just come with an angle grinder nowadays and cut the lock off.

"Our little gate sensor is fitted at the bottom of the gate, and in conjunction with the farmer we ask what hours will nobody have access to this land, and we can tweak that sensor, that if the sensor is disturbed or opened between those hours, you get a text alert and you get an email alert.

"So once again, it gives the farmer the heads up that there's something going on that shouldn't be happening."

Alan Daly added that having these security measures in place can often act as additional deterrents and help prevent the theft of livestock on farms.